Hawktails!: mixing and matching drinks with Seahawks stars

Silver, green and blue — our bars are drowning in kaleidoscopic cocktails and Jell-O shots dolled up in Seahawks colors these days. If you downed one at a sports bar, you took one for the team. They taste awful.

I’m all for team spirit, but can someone, anyone, make a decent Seahawks-themed cocktail?

The Super Bowl is still three weeks away. If the Seahawks make it to East Rutherford, N.J., that’s a lot of Kool-Aid concoctions to suffer through between now and Super Sunday.

We need to be vigilant. This is a matter of great urgency. Bartenders, I’m here to help.

Mulling this over at Barrio during a recent half-price tequila night — I have a lot of free time on my hands — I chatted up talented barman Casey Robison. I challenged him to make a Seahawks cocktail on the spot.

He looked at his shelves for a minute. Then he grabbed some mint, agave syrup and Blue Curaçao. Of course there was tequila. He finished it with a float of green chartreuse, a French liqueur. The result? The drink tasted like a cross between a margarita and a Blue Hawaii, with a nice herbaceous note to dial back on the sweetness. It looked pretty. It tasted pretty good.

Said Robison, “Call it You Mad, Bro? in honor of Richard Sherman’s taunt to Tom Brady after the team’s victory over the Patriots last season.

That was easy. The other bartenders had it harder. I asked them to create a cocktail based on a player I had assigned to them: Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, Golden Tate and, just for kicks, kicker Steven Hauschka.

Their recipes and how-to videos are posted on the All You Can Eat blog if you want inspiration for your playoff party. The drinks range from simple, home-bar ingredients to the mixology realm.

Jeshua Madden from the Gerald bar in Ballard made a sophisticated Hauschka Sour, a green drink with gin, lime, some sage and apple liqueurs, with an egg white for a foamy texture. “The egg white supplies that protein and the 100-proof gin calms nerves for those 50-yard game-winning kicks,” Madden said.

I asked Cale Green of Sun Liquor to make a dessert cocktail in homage to Tate’s, uh, complicated relationship with doughnuts.

Tate, who isn’t as elusive off the field as he is on punt returns, got a trespassing warning four years ago after he was caught sneaking into a closed Top Pot Doughnuts at 3 a.m. to get his maple-bar fix.

For him, The Maple Caper. It’s the most strenuous of all cocktails, as Green put his game face on to shake and shake to make sure the raw egg emulsified with the bourbon, aged rum and Grade A maple syrup.

Damn if it didn’t taste like a liquid maple cake. And listen up, Golden: unlike Top Pot Doughnuts, Sun Liquor stays open late.

You can get this cocktail at Sun Liquor, 607 Summit Ave. on Tuesdays-Thursday when Green is behind the bar.

Jason Finn, the drummer for The Presidents of the United States of America, did a Russellmania shot. I’ve judged a cocktail contest with Finn before. I can vouch. His cocktail cred is solid. He also used to bartend at The Comet Tavern before fame and glory took hold.

Finn did a three-ingredient vodka shot (in honor of Wilson’s jersey number), tinted blue. It’s served at the bar Liberty on Capitol Hill and garnished “with a lime wheel dipped in sugar and espresso grounds,” said Liberty owner Andrew Friedman. “Chew on lime wheel. Take shot. Man up.” The espresso is supposed to give you a jolt, much like the quarterback does for the team.

Apparently, running back Marshawn Lynch’s go-to drink is half Hennessey, half Patron, served neat. It sounds awful. But who’s gonna tell Lynch that to his face? Not me.

Tommy Stearns, who works at Suite 410 in downtown Seattle, used to serve Lynch “Patronnessey” at Lucky Strike in Bellevue.

I asked Stearns to improve on Lynch’s concoction. His result is a fun drink called Beastronessey.

It takes Lynch’s two favorite spirits and mixes them with yellow chartreuse, apple juice and maple syrup, with a Granny Smith apple garnish. Those secondary ingredients provide some earthy and herbal notes and a “smooth and sweet finish. Just like Marshawn’s runs,” Stearns pointed out.

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @tanvinhseattle. Tan Vinh is a features writer for the Seattle Times. He hikes and drinks for a living, though he never does both at the same time. At least not while on the clock.